By GREG MENGELT

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — New Albany graduate Josh Jefferson had an impressive debut for Middle Tennessee on Tuesday, scoring a team-best 16 points in the Blue Raiders’ 98-59 win over Brescia.

Jefferson made 7-of-12 shots, including 2-of-6 from behind the 3-point line. He also led the Blue Raiders with four steals and had two rebounds and an assist. The senior averaged 14.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists last season at Green Bay.

Three of Jefferson’s teammates scored in double figures in the win. Isaiah Turner had 13, Eli Lawrence finished with 12 and Christian Fussell contributed 10. Turner and Fussell played off the Middle Tennessee bench, which contributed 49 points to the victory.

“It’s exciting,” Jefferson said of the Blue Raiders’ potential. “Strength in numbers. … We have length, we have depth. It’s very exciting and I can’t wait to keep it going.”

Middle Tennessee turned Brescia over 28 times and scored 47 points off of those turnovers.

Tre Pillow had 9 to pace Brescia.

By GREG MENGELT

WEST LAFAYETTE — Purdue opened its 124th men’s basketball season with a resounding 96-67 win over Bellarmine at Mackey Arena.

The easy win was expected for the seventh-ranked Boilermakers. The surprise came earlier in the day when head coach Matt Painter announced that Silver Creek graduate Trey Kaufman-Renn would redshirt his first season at Purdue.

Purdue’s depth and a hand injury forced the issue with Kaufman-Renn, who is one of the top recruiting prizes of the 17-year Painter Era at Purdue and led the Dragons to a pair of state titles. The Gatorade Indiana Player of the Year joins Brian Waddell, who led Carmel to the 4A state championship last season, as a Class of 2021 redshirt for the Boilermakers.

“His was a 50/50 deal,” Painter said of Kaufman-Renn’s situation. “The thing with him is he has a moving piece with Mason (Gillis) coming back. In 4 games, he comes back and what does it look like? I can project and guess to the best of my ability, and I can tell you where we’re at today, but I can’t say for sure.”

Painter said he’ll often tell players they need to redshirt. That wasn’t the case with Kaufman-Renn. Painter said it was ultimately the player’s decision.

“We would have supported him either way,” Painter said following Tuesday’s win. “Sometimes making the best decision for yourself … is really hard to do. Because you want to play. Who doesn’t want to play? It was very close. I thought he made a really mature decision. If he would’ve decided to play, I wouldn’t have talked him out of that.

“How I normally do it with guys is weigh out the pros and the cons. I was just trying to educate him to the best of my ability about the pros and cons and help him make the right decision.”

Purdue’s depth showed in Tuesday’s season-opening win. Four Boilermakers scored in double figures, led by Sasha Stefanovic’s 23. Stefanovic was 5-for-6 from beyond the 3-point arc. Zach Edey added 16 points and nine boards, Isaiah Thompson went 5-for-8 from deep and scored 15 and Brandon Newman came off the Boilermaker bench for 14 points.

Purdue made 16 of its 36 3-point attempts and was 24-of-29 at the charity stripe. All-American candidates Trevion Williams and Jaden Ivey combined for just 15 points in the win. Williams came off the Purdue bench.

“There are a lot of players coming off our bench who could be starters,” Painter said.

CJ Fleming and Dylan Penn scored 14 apiece to pace Bellarmine (0-1). Providence graduate Juston Betz scored four points, grabbed four rebounds, handed out three assists and swiped two steals for the Knights, who go to Murray State on Saturday.

Purdue, which had 21 assists on 28 baskets, hosts Indiana State on Friday evening at 8:30.

“A lot of our 3s were just rotation and moving the ball,” Painter said. “I thought our guys made great decisions and moved the basketball.”

By GREG MENGELT

Over the weekend, Corydon upset Brownstown to take kick off the season’s Mid-Southern Conference schedule.

The conference race begins in earnest this week with three big games. So today, we’re going to take a look ahead at what should be a very entertaining MSC race.

Of course, it all starts with Salem and Silver Creek, which appear to be the class of the league. The Dragons are the defending state champions. The two years prior, the Lions beat Silver Creek on their way to regional and semistate championships. The teams meet on Jan. 8 in Sellersburg and the race will almost certainly play a giant role in the MSC chase.

That game appears to be a tossup at this point. Many of the games in the MSC in 2021-22 are expected to be.

The MSC had the sixth-best record in the state last year and was probably the best mid-sized conference in Indiana. The league went a combined 85-46. Four of the nine teams (Silver Creek, Eastern, Austin and Scottsburg) have won state championship. Salem, North Harrison, Brownstown, Corydon and Charlestown have all won semistate championships.

For those of you counting, that’s every MSC team that has either played for a state championship or made a Final 4 multiple times. That’s impressive for any conference, much less one the size of the MSC.

There’s no reason to believe this year will be any different. There’s not a team in the league that doesn’t pose some danger every time it steps on the court. It’s probable only Salem and Silver Creek are serious state championship contenders — or probably even serious conference contenders — but there isn’t a single pushover in the league.

It appears that North Harrison, Charlestown and Eastern are the top threats to Salem and Silver Creek, but Austin and Corydon already have impressive wins early in the season. Austin opened with a win over Madison and the Panthers started their conference slate with a 50-43 triumph over Brownstown. Both have a chance to be in the mix.

North Harrison and Eastern have big games this week, as far as the conference race goes, including a showdown with each other on Friday. The Lady Cats will battle 1-0 Charlestown in the Hoosier Hills Hoops Game of the Week the following night. The night after facing North Harrison, Eastern travels to Austin for a matchup with the 1-1 Eagles.

Those three matchups are a primer for what should be an excellent, entertaining MSC race and could set the tone for the rest of the season.

NOTE: The Hoosier Hills Conference race gets fully underway next week when Jeffersonville goes to Bedford North Lawrence. We will preview the HHC race a week from today.

HOOSIER HILLS HOOPS
2021-22 MID-SOUTHERN CONFERENCE PREDICTIONS

1. Silver Creek
2. Salem
3. North Harrison
4. Charlestown
5. Eastern
6. Corydon
7. Brownstown
8. Austin
9. Scottsburg

THE WEEK AHEAD

Game Previews for Nov. 9-13 (for games from teams from Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Scott and Washington counties). NOTE: Girls’ game previews will appear on Hoosier Hills Hoops every Tuesday morning throughout the week. Boys’ previews will appear each Friday morning when the season begins Nov. 22.

GAME OF THE WEEK

NORTH HARRISON (1-1, 0-0 MSC) AT CHARLESTOWN (1-1, 0-0)

• Day/Time: Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

• Location: Charlestown Sports Arena.

• Coaches:

North Harrison — Jamie Kolkmeier (13-7 in second season at North Harrison and overall).

Charlestown — Scott Matthews (67-53 in sixth season at Charlestown and overall).

• Rankings:

Charlestown — Receiving votes (IBCA).

• Last Week:

North Harrison — Lost at Jeffersonville 43-42 (Nov. 5).

Charlestown — Defeated Lawrenceburg 60-55 (Jennings County Lady Panther Tipoff, first round, Nov. 6); Lost at Jennings County 55-42 (Jennings County Lady Panther Tipoff, first round, Nov. 6).

• Last 20 years: North Harrison 20-5. The Lady Cats have won eight of their last nine against Charlestown.

• Most recent meeting: At North Harrison 65, Charlestown 60.

• News and notes: Diana Burgher scored 24 points in the win over South Central and Ali Saunders scored half of the Lady Cats’ points in the loss to Jeffersonville. Saunders enters this week averaging 20 points per game. … It was a strong start for the Pirates last weekend. They opened the tipoff tournament at Jennings County with a win over a strong Lawrenceburg program before a 13-point loss to the host Panthers, who are expected to challenge for the HHC title.

• Outlook: It should be an interesting week for both teams. North Harrison gets Eastern and Charlestown this weekend in a couple games that are essentially elimination games.. Lose either one of any hope of competing for a conference title goes away. The Pirates get Southern Indiana power programs Floyd Central, North Harrison and Silver Creek. We’ll know a lot about both teams by the end of the week.

• Greg’s pick: North Harrison 58, Charlestown 54.

[Click here to read more →]

Topics and headlines discussed on today’s radio show included:

• Grantz previewed the 2021-22 Red Devils, including his trio of senior standouts — Will Lovings-Watts, Brandon Razor-Moore and Kobe Stoudemire.
• Monnie McGee and Caleb Thomas could be keys this season for Jeff, which will face an ultra-competitive schedule and have only one home game in December.
• The Red Devils will host A Night at The Inferno preseason event on Friday, which will include a intrasquad scrimmage and other festivities.
• An in-depth preview of tonight’s IU-Eastern Michigan game to open the Woodson era in Bloomington
• Will Michael Penix and Jack Tuttle return to IU football this weekend versus Rutgers?
• And more.

Listen to the show on Apple Podcasts or by using the below player:

The Hoosier Report with Matt Denison is a daily radio show that features coverage of the Indiana Hoosiers and sports from a Southern Indiana perspective. The show can be heard live weekdays at 11 a.m. on WXVW-1450/96.1 in Southern Indiana and Louisville, Ky.

Topics and headlines discussed on today’s radio show included:

• The NCAA has released a draft version of a new constitution that will further change college athletics, giving schools more authority and putting a focus on athlete welfare.
• Is IU football’s lack of success this season going to send the program backwards?
• IU basketball opens the season Tuesday versus Eastern Michigan. The Hoosiers will start Xavier Johnson, Parker Stewart, Miller Kopp, Race Thompson and Trayce Jackson-Davis, Woodson said during his press conference.
• New Albany football wins it first sectional in 19 seasons.
• Today marks the first day of high school boys’ basketball practices in the Hoosier State
• And more.

Listen to the show on Apple Podcasts or by using the below player:

The Hoosier Report with Matt Denison is a daily radio show that features coverage of the Indiana Hoosiers and sports from a Southern Indiana perspective. The show can be heard live weekdays at 11 a.m. on WXVW-1450/96.1 in Southern Indiana and Louisville, Ky.

By GREG MENGELT

Silver Creek dropped two spots to No. 16 and Salem rose two spots to No. 17 in the latest single-class Indiana Basketball Coaches Association poll, released Sunday following the first full week of the 2021-22 girls’ basketball season.

The Mid-Southern Conference rivals started their seasons with impressive wins. Defending Class 3A state champion Silver Creek won 65-31 at Brown County on Saturday. On the same day, Salem dominated Seymour in a 70-47 triumph. The teams meet on Jan. 8 in a game that will almost certainly have a major impact on the MSC race.

Both teams have big tests coming up. The Lions go to Jennings County (3-0) on Thursday. The Dragons host Seymour, Charlestown and Jeffersonville in their next three games. Creek hosts Charlestown (1-1) on Thursday in a big MSC contest. The Pirates received votes in the latest IBCA poll.

Three teams from the Hoosier Hills Conference appeared in the poll. Bedford North Lawrence (1-0) is ranked fifth and Columbus East (1-0) is No. 20. Jennings County received votes.

INDIANA BASKETBALL COACHES POLL

Rank, School (1st place votes) Record

1. Crown Point (19) 1-0, 2. South Bend Washington (1) 2-0, 3. Noblesville 1-0, 4. North Central 2-0, 5. Bedford North Lawrence 1-0, 6. Homestead 1-0, 7. Penn 2-0, 8. Franklin 2-0, 9. Zionsville 2-0, 10. Fishers 2-0, 11t. East Central 1-0, 11t. Carmel 1-0, 13. Hamilton Southeastern 3-0, 14. Mishawaka Marian 2-0, 15. Westfield 1-1, 16. Silver Creek 1-0, 17. Salem 1-0, 18. Lawrence North 1-1, 19. Fort Wayne Carroll 0-1, 20. Columbus East 1-0.

Others receiving votes: Angola, Ben Davis, Castle, Charlestown, Columbia City, Eastern Hancock, Evansville Memorial, Fort Wayne Northrop, Fort Wayne Snider, Fort Wayne South, Garrett, Hamilton Heights, Jac-Cen-Del, Jennings County, Lafayette Central Catholic, Linton-Stockton, Mooresville, Mt. Vernon (Fortville), New Palestine, North Daviess, Northridge, Northwestern, Pioneer, South Central (Union Mills), Tecumseh, Tipton, Triton Central, Tri-West, University, Vincennes Rivet, Waldron, Warsaw, Washington.

NOTE: Records as of Sunday.